From Bathroom Brainstorm to Campus Movement: How Latch’d Redefined Campus Pride

At Spelman, tradition and innovation often move side by side. Seniors Logan Smith and Aisjah Glaspie have found a way to quite literally pin their mark on campus culture. As co-founders of Latch’d, the two have turned pin-back buttons into an integral part of campus life, earning recognition as awardees of the 2026 Spotlight Award: Game Changers.

What started as an idea for Homecoming did not stay there for long.

“We came up with the idea in our apartment bathroom,” Smith said.

The idea came from something both founders had noticed before launching the business. At large Southern SEC schools, pins are part of the atmosphere around games and major events. Smith and Glaspie wondered why that same kind of visible tradition was not present at an HBCU. Instead of waiting for someone else to bring it, they decided to do it themselves.

In the year since, Latch’d has grown into a campuswide presence. The business has created buttons for pageants, class council elections, campaigns and major events. It has also collaborated with the Office of Admissions for Junior Preview Day and created AUC-inspired pins for Black Coffee Atlanta. In a short span of time, Smith and Glaspie built something recognizable and highly sought after.

For Glaspie, receiving a Spotlight Award feels especially meaningful because of how quickly that growth happened.

“This is a very surreal moment. We’ve been able to do a lot in under one year,” she said. “It’s really honoring that the campus community was able to recognize us and that we’ve left such a lasting impact in such a short amount of time.”

Their business and success come as a natural progression of the two’s campus involvement. Both founders came into Latch’d with a strong sense of how campus culture works and what students actually respond to.

Glaspie said her time as class council social chair during her first and second years helped her understand what students were drawn to and what felt current on campus. Smith brought experience of her own. Through creating flyers, reels and campaign materials, she developed the design instincts and visual discipline that now shape the business.

They have also kept the business firmly in their own hands.

“We do everything ourselves,” Glaspie said. “All of our design, how we run everything, all of our ideas. It comes from us.”

That closeness runs through the brand itself. The connected “L” and “A” in the Latch’d logo represent Logan and Aisjah, a detail Smith said reflects the friendship behind the business. After four years of living together and building alongside one another, that connection is not incidental. It is part of the company’s identity.

Latch’d has also succeeded because it gives students something more than decoration.

“It’s just another fun way to express yourself,” Glaspie said.

That expression has taken on real social meaning across campus. The buttons let students support friends running for office, mark milestone events, represent organizations and carry pieces of campus life with them after the moment has passed. In that way, Latch’d did not just introduce a product. It introduced another way for Spelman students to be seen.

For Glaspie, Latch’d built confidence. She said turning an idea into something real expanded her sense of what she could execute. For Smith, the lesson was about risk. What began on a whim became proof that acting on an idea, even before every detail is settled, can create opportunities that would not exist otherwise.

“It’s just shown me that I can take a risk and do stuff on a whim. It might go up or down, but this time it went up,” Smith said.

As graduation approaches, both founders plan to keep building. Even as they prepare to live in different places, they intend to continue growing Latch’d, expand beyond Spelman and the AUC and eventually bring it to other HBCUs. They also hope to broaden their offerings while staying true to the brand they have already built.

Their nomination describes Latch’d as something that changed campus culture. Looking at its reach, that claim does not feel overstated. Before Latch’d, pins and buttons were not nearly as central to the look of student life. Now they are part of the way students celebrate, campaign, support one another and show where they belong.

“You don’t have to know it all before you start something,” Smith said. “Just start.”

Glaspie offered a similar message. Start anyway. Start uncertain. Start before you feel completely ready.

That advice fits the story they have written at Spelman. Latch’d did not begin with a perfect blueprint. It began with two students noticing a gap, trusting their instincts and building something their community was ready to claim as its own.

A year later, that decision is still leaving its mark.